1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic advertising, particularly the use of "banner ads."
2. State of the Art
Digital convergence has resulted in an increasing blurring of distinctions between computing and broadcast media, a notable example of which is Internet TV, i.e., equipment and services that provide for Internet access using a TV screen as the display. Broadcast media are often subsidized by advertising and provided free-of-charge to the consumer. A similar trend has emerged in the Internet arena. Internet directories and search engines may be used free-of-charge, however, advertisements are prominently displayed at nearly every turn.
Another example of this trend is the Pointcast.TM. Network, in which a piece of software installed on a user's machine automatically connects to the Internet and grabs news that the user wants directly off the Internet to create customized desktop news pages daily, hourly, or as often as the user wants. The news pages are displayed along with advertisements.
In contrast to advertisement-subsidized software, there is also a considerable body of "freeware," software that can be freely distributed. If a user finds the software especially useful or enjoyable, the user may be encouraged to make nominal payment to the author of the software.
Despite the foregoing trends, most "mainstream" software is purchased (or, more accurately, licensed), with the price typically ranging from several tens of dollars to many thousands of dollars depending on the software program. No mechanism exists that would allow a software developer to produce an advertisement-subsidized version of a software program without extensive source code changes.
Using the Internet to transmit selected advertisements or other information in background mode to a local computer is known. One such system is described in patent publication WO 9707656 entitled METHOD AND APPRATATUS FOR TRANSMITTING AND DISPLAYING INFORMATION BETWEEN A REMOTE NETWORK AND A LOCAL COMPUTER, published Mar. 6, 1997, and incorporated herein by reference. In the foregoing system, the selection of what advertisements or other information to transmit to a particular user is based on user-defined preference. Such a system suffers from certain disadvantages. For example, to correctly anticipate what information should be sought from users is difficult. If a need or desire for additional user information become apparent, it is necessary to have user update their preferences. This cycle of recognizing a need for further user information and requesting users to update their preferences may occur repeatedly. Hence, although data transfer may occur in background mode, operation of the system is quite visible--and quite possibly distracting--to users.
Furthermore, the foregoing patent relates to a system in which the acquisition and display of the advertisements is carried out by a program that has been created expressly for the purpose of presenting the advertisements and information to the user rather than in a program that the user is intrinsically interested in operating. The disadvantage of this approach is that a computer user may not find the program compelling enough to allow it to operate on the user's computer.